Geoff Foster of the Daily Mail on yesterday's trade

Washed out by the highly-publicised price wars between Persil owner Unilever and Ariel-maker Procter & Gamble and June's shock profits warning which effectively put it up for sale, McBride attracted speculative buying. The talk is of an imminent management buyout at 135p and the shares closed 8 1/2p higher at 93 1/2p.

Venture capitalists and overseas buyers have run the slide rule over the company which makes own-label personal care and household products including soap powder for Tesco and Sainsbury.

Boots did take a serious look at the business two years ago. Boots makes some products, such as toothpaste, which it supplies to other retailers. Analysts say a bid for McBride would make a great deal of sense but doubt whether Boots will make the move.

A buyout from BP in the early Nineties, McBride was floated at 188p five years ago. Lord Sheppard of Didgemere is chairman. US broker Lehman Brothers holds almost 16%. Boots, which this week paid £233m for Clearasil, lost 27p to 532p.

Impressive quarterly figures from computer giant Microsoft and mobile phone colossus Nokia revitalised US markets on the 13th anniversary of the 1987 crash. After Wednesday's heavy sell-off on worries about corporate profits, their reassuring earnings performance tempted back buyers .

Wall Street rallied 134 points in the early stages and hi-tech Nasdaq bounced an impressive 200 points. London followed suit. The Footsie recovered 97.9 before closing 70.7 points higher at 6218.9 and the tech-MARK 100 rallied 112 points to 3328.

News that Gerald Corbett will remain as chief executive despite tending his resignation to the board over the Hatfield rail crash did not stop Railtrack reversing a further 21 1/2p in early dealings. But cheap buyers appeared later and the close was 10 1/2p better at 1017p.

Energis gained 45p to 485p after broker Dresdner Kleinwort Benson upgraded its current year pre-tax profit forecast by £2m to £146m and next year's by £20m to £825m.

Relief that its bid for Content Technologies of the US is going through left Baltimore, Europe's biggest maker of computer security software, 31p better at 475p.

Speculative buying amid revived talk of a bid from US corporate raider and break-up specialist Kohlberg Kravis Roberts lifted Invensys 8 3/4p to 133 /4p on turnover of 41.6m. KKR is rumoured to have acquired a small stake in the beleaguered group formed via the merger of conglomerate BTR and engineer Siebe. Tyco Industries is also said to be keeping a close eye on developments.

Perennial takeover favourite IMI advanced 22p to 212 1/4p. For the umpteenth time in recent years, dealers heard that the engineer has received a bid approach.

Power group Turbo Genset soared 292 1/2p to 2175p after receiving its first firm order from DTE Energy Technologies worth £5.9m for mini-turbo generator systems to be delivered in 2002.

Almost 10m Premier Oil changed hands and the close was 1p better at 13 3/4p. Canada's Bow Valley Energy announced that its Kyle appraisal well, in which Premier owns 35%, has produced 11,000 barrels of oil a day and has the potential to deliver more than 20,000 barrels.

Bulls believe there is now every chance that either Amerada Hess or Malaysia's Petronas, which own 25% apiece of Premier, will realise the potential of its interest in Kyle and launch a full-scale offer.

Sellers pulled the plug on Ramco Energy after the company suspended drilling at its well in Azerbaijan. The close was 22 1/2p lower at 455p.

Tadpole Technology rose 4 3/4p to 59 3/4p as dealers heard that a company director will be singing the group's praises on CNBC today.